poisoning an island
papua new guinea’s lihir gold
mine
"the natural beauty of the place
should be preserved.I know, in that bay,
it's one of the places, that the
leatherback turtle comes to lay its eggs
and now it doesn't happen anymore. And now
I know too, because of the volcano, the
wild fowl used to live here before and
people used to sell those eggs, but it
doesn't happen any more now. So those
things are gone - destroyed,.
interview with Father Clement Taulum, Lihir
Island, 2000
"the sea comes very near and goes
into the trees.Twice in recent years a
whale died on our shores. Really awkward,
this never happened before. People don't
understand and wonder whether this is the
effect of the taillings"
Jacklyn Membup, former mine worker
and local resident.
corporation rio tinto [united
kingdom]
© siman
divecha,mpi
On Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea, the
mountains rise steeply from the sea, and
the coast is fringed by coral reefs.
Lihirians are a matriarchal, peace-loving
people, and when faced with conflict they
paint their faces with mud or charcoal and
present the offender with a “gorgor” plant
to symbolize their desire to put problems
on the table. Goods and services have
traditionally been freely exchanged between
islanders, with no money changing hands.
But since a Rio Tinto subsidiary opened a
massive, polluting gold mine here in 1985,
mud masks and gorgors have become more
commonplace, and bartering has been
replaced by cash transactions.
The Lihir Gold Mine, in operation since
1997, is an open-cut mine located within an
ancient volcano. Gold is extracted from the
rock with cyanide, and the tailings –
comprised of crushed rock particles,
residual solution, cyanide and other toxic
metals – are discharged directly into the
sea through an underwater pipeline. The
mine will generate approximately 84 million
tons of tailings and 300 million tons of
waste rock over its seventeen-year life
span. The raw gold produced from the mine
is exported and turned into jewelry.
The US Overseas Private Investment
Corporation refused to support the project.
However, Lihir financiers at the time of
construction did include the World Bank,
two export credit agencies, and the
European Investment Bank. The World Bank
Group's rationale for guaranteeing the
project was that it would provide the
country with export revenue that would
trickle down to the people of Papua New
Guinea. However, the country's government
is one of the most corrupt in the
world.
environmental and social
waste
The mine has had major social effects,
largely due to a massive influx of workers
from other areas. The population of Lihir
Island has swelled from 6,000 before the
mine opened to over 11,000 by 2001. Prior
to the mine operation, the island was
relatively isolated from the rest of Papua
New Guinea, with only a few roads and a
small airstrip. Today, however, the island
has a major airport and a ring road built
jointly by the mine and the government.
Furthermore, the majority of landowners
have abandoned their traditional
subsistence farming and their children have
lost interest in growing crops.
An April 2003 project visit commissioned
as part of the World Bank’s Extractive
Industries Review (EIR) was not a great
success. In the EIR’s own words, “The team
spent limited time on each site, and were
not able to interview independent members
of the communities,other than the few
selected by the relevant companies. The
team had little information regarding the
main environmental and social issues
relating to each project prior to the visit
[...]” Nonetheless, the EIR report was able
to conclude that “social tensions prevail
on the island as major conflicts
occasionally occur between the haves and
have-nots. There has been a notable
increase in alcohol consumption within the
community, which has led to an increase in
alcohol-related crime and other problems,
such as an increase in the breakdown of
marriages and traditional
relationships.”
Indeed, new schools, hospitals,
transport, housing and human resources
development schemes have all appeared. But
Lihir is a prime example of the creation of
corporate dependency: the community is
heavily reliant on the mine for the
provision of basic public services, and
this cycle will be difficult to break after
the mine closes. Unfortunately, the
government is unlikely to take over the
delivery of services to these remote
communities.
Ocean disposal of mine waste via
submarine tailings disposal will
undoubtedly have longterm impacts on the
coastal ecology. The company has already
acknowledged that ocean dumping has been
smothering organisms living on the ocean
floor. Islanders see fewer seashells, more
dead fish and they complain of itchy skin.
In fact, submarine tailings disposal is
banned by many countries through the London
Convention on Dumping in the Sea, to which
Papua New Guinea is a signatory.
The Lihirians are calling for more
information about what is happening on
their island, and want independent
monitoring of the impacts of the disposal
of waste on the sea and fisheries. The
World Bank is currently pressuring the
government of Papua New Guinea to
drastically change its mining code. It
should ensure that the people of Papua New
Guinea get to speak their minds in this
process, and that their demands are taken
into account.
financiers world bank miga | eib |
export finance insurance corporation
[australian export credit agency] | export
development corporation [canadian export
credit agency]
